Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus

Lord Patten: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current prevalence of COVID-19 in England; and whether this rate is increasing or decreasing.

Lord Markham: There are early signs of a fall in prevalence in all regions of England and in Scotland, with the largest decline being observed in London. Data from the Winter Coronavirus Infection Survey estimates that the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in England on 3 January 2024 was 3.2%. This is a decrease from 4.6% of the population in England estimated to have SARS-CoV-2 on 20 December 2023.It is not unexpected for surveillance data to show a temporary change in the transmission rates of respiratory infections over the Christmas period. The UK Health Security Agency and the Office for National Statistics will continue to monitor the data closely to confirm whether this drop in prevalence will be sustained.

Hospices: Children

Lord Carlile of Berriew: To ask His Majesty's Government whetherthey expect integrated care boards in England to be able to identify how much money they spend on children’s hospices; and, if not, what action they will take.

Lord Markham: The Government does not hold information regarding the amount of money each integrated care board (ICB) spends on children’s hospices. There is currently no plan to take any action to ensure that ICBs can identify how much money they spend specifically on children’s hospices. At a national level, NHS England supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s hospice grant. The grant provided approximately £17 million in 2021/22, £21 million in 2022/23 and £25 million in 2023/24 directly to children and young people’s hospices. NHS England has confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. NHS England is reprioritising budgets for 2024/25, in light of the revised assessment of financial position and, whilst it is holding funding aside for the children and young people’s hospice sector, it cannot confirm further details, including the distribution mechanism, until 2024/25 financial planning is concluded. Additionally, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan commitment, NHSE has provided approximately £8.5 million match-funding to participating ICBs and formerly clinical commissioning groups between 2022/23 and 2023/24 that committed to invest in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, giving a total investment of £17 million for that period.

Health Services: Older People

Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice: To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the budget ofNHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS funded Nursing Care is spent on pensioners.

Lord Markham: NHS England does not collect data on how much NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and National Health Service-funded Nursing Care funding is spent on ‘pensioners’, defined here as someone who is in receipt of a pension. Determination of CHC eligibility is based on a comprehensive assessment of care needs rather than any specific medical condition, disease or diagnosis.

Social Services: Older People

Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice: To ask His Majesty's Government which (1) benefits, and (2) programmes, provide adult social care to adults of pension age, including (a) caseload by programme, and (b) total expenditure by programme.

Lord Markham: Adult social care is a devolved service and local authorities are responsible for ensuring that people with eligible needs receive support. By the end of 2022/23, 629,050 people were accessing long-term support from councils in England to meet their care needs, 370,110 of whom were people aged 65 years old or over.Total public spending on adult social care was £22.9 billion in 2022/23. This spend is supported by local government revenue and central government grant, not from the benefits system. Since autumn 2022, the Government has made available up to £8.1 billion in additional funding to support adult social care and discharge over 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Palliative Care: Children and Young People

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger: To ask His Majesty's Government what directions and guidance the Department of Health and Social Care will provide to integrated care boards oncommissioning palliative and end of life care for children and young people.

Lord Markham: Children and young people’s palliative and end of life care is provided by a range of services and providers from across the statutory and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors. Commissioning of these services is the statutory duty of integrated care boards (ICBs), which must commission palliative and end of life care services in response to the needs of their local population and ensure that they are provided by a range of local organisations with the experience and skills to meet those needs.In July 2022, NHS England published statutory guidance for commissioners on palliative and end of life care, setting out the considerations for ICBs to meet their legal duties. A copy of this guidance is attached.NHS England has also published a service specification for children and young people, which provides guidance on undertaking assessments to enable high-quality commissioning of services that meet both population need and preferences. A copy of this specification is attached.NHS England’s palliative and end of life care team has recently engaged with 24 ICBs to understand how to better support commissioners, and has also reviewed all 42 ICB Joint Forward Plans for their inclusion of palliative and end of life care, with 69% of those plans making a specific mention. Further analysis is ongoing, but the intention is to use this information to help shape and focus support to ICBs.Specialist palliative and end of life care service (pdf, 372.0KB)Palliative and End of Life Care (pdf, 500.2KB)

Palliative Care: Children and Young People

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger: To ask His Majesty's Government how much money was spentper case on palliative and end of life care for children and young people in (1) 2022, and (2) 2023; and how much they anticipate spending in 2024.

Lord Markham: The Government does not hold information on how much money was spent per case on palliative and end of life care for children and young people in 2022 and 2023. Patient-level spend is not collated at a national level, with spend based on need determined during the integrated care board (ICB) commissioning process.At a national level, NHS England supports palliative and end of life care for children and young people through the Children and Young People’s hospice grant. The grant provided approximately £17 million in 2021/22, £21 million in 2022/23 and £25 million in 2023/24 directly to children and young people’s hospices. NHS England has confirmed that it will be renewing the grant for 2024/25, once again allocating £25 million grant funding for children’s hospices using the same prevalence-based allocation approach as in 2022/23 and 2023/24. NHS England is reprioritising budgets for 2024/25, in light of the revised assessment of financial position and, whilst it is holding funding aside for the children and young people’s hospice sector, it cannot confirm further details, including the distribution mechanism, until 2024/25 financial planning is concluded.Additionally, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan commitment, NHS England has provided approximately £8.5 million match-funding to participating ICBs and formerly clinical commissioning groups between 2022/23 and 2023/24 that committed to invest in children and young people’s palliative and end of life care, including hospices, giving a total investment of £17 million for that period.